Sword Art Online: XY&Z
by MarioMover
Summary: [INDEFINITE HIATUS] Ash and Serena travel in to the virtual world of Sword Art Online! They meet up with friends new and old, and run in to a couple with a little more than just MMO experience! [RE-WRITE!] Features Amourshipping and KiriSuna.
1. The Beginning

_Hey guys! This story might seem familiar to some of you, as this is, in fact, a re-write of my original story_ Sword Art Online: XYZ _! The last one had many inconsistencies (thanks to MyNoseAgreesWithMe for pointing them all out) and I hadn't even written a second chapter! So, I've decided to re-write the story and rebuild it from the ground up. Without further ado, I present to you Sword Art Online: XYZ!_

 _I don't own Pokémon! If I did, Serena would be going to Alola._

 _I don't own SAO, either! If I did, Kirito would be with Sinon._

"Hurry up, Serena! We'll be late for the launch!" called Ash Ketchum, a Pokémon trainer from Pallet Town of Kanto. He once aspired to be a Pokémon Master, but gave up that dream to be with Serena instead. He had tackled every league of every region, except for the Island Challenge in Alola, although he was planning on taking Serena there for a vacation.

Ash and Serena had been dating for almost three years at this point. They met during their childhoods at a Pallet Town summer camp, and then met again in Kalos, during Ash's journey to challenge the Kalos League. Along Ash's journey they met Clemont, the leader of the Lumiose City gym, and his little sister Bonnie. Clemont had gone off to join Ikubus Development, one of the biggest game and technology developers in the world. Bonnie took over the Lumiose gym in place of her brother.

Ash and Serena had planned to get the new VirtuLens, a headset from Ikubus that used "FullDive" technology created by Akihiko Kayaba. Along with the VirtuLens came the hottest game of the year, some even saying one of the biggest launches in history – _Sword Art Online: Reborn_ , a new version of the infamous _Sword Art Online_.

Many gamers were hesitant about the VirtuLens and _Sword Art Online: Reborn_. After the "SAO incident", in which 10,000 players were trapped inside a FullDive game, and where you died in real life if your HP dropped to zero, the world grew worried that another situation would rise up. Ikubus Development, however, promised that _SAO:R_ had a Logout button and that IRL death did not exist.

"I'll be right there!" Serena called, rushing towards Ash. She wasn't a "gamer" by any means, but she was excited to try out FullDive with her boyfriend. After all, marriage was a part of _SAO:R_ , and the thought of being married to Ash, even though only in a virtual world, was a thought she was most enthusiastic about.

The two trainers were just about ready to head out the door, before Ash was startled by an electric shock.

"Pika-pi!"

"Oh, sorry, Pikachu!" Ash said, as he looked behind himself. There was his faithful partner, the electric mouse Pokémon, Pikachu.

"Pika!" It exclaimed joyfully, as it hopped upon its trainer's shoulder.

"Alright, let's go!"

 **~~Later…~~**

"And here we are!" Serena announced.

"Yep! And it looks like everyone else is here too." All around him were long lines of people, from casual players to hard-core gamers, all waiting to get their VirtuLens and copies of _Sword Art Online: Reborn_.

"We're never gonna get our copies!" Ash groaned.

"Are you sure about that, Ash?" Serena pointed towards a herd of trainers, who all looked ready to battle. "Look over there!"

"Hey trainers!" called one of the group members. "If you can beat us in a Pokémon battle, you'll win a VirtuLens and _SAO:R_. One battle per customer!"

"A battle, huh? This should be fun. Come on, Pikachu!"

The boy walked over to the trainers, prepared to fight. The group member walked towards Ash, Poké Ball in hand.

"So, you want to battle?" The trainer asked Ash. "This ought to be interesting."

Ash could overhear the whispered comments from the other trainers in the group.

"You're gonna owe me ten bucks after this when this kid gets his ass kicked," said one guy.

"No one in this group has lost a battle yet, you better not be the first, Leo," said another.

 _No one's lost a battle here yet, huh?_ Ash thought to himself. _Well then, let's bring that winning streak to an end – we've got this!_

"My name's Leo, I'm head of the promotional board for _SAO:R_ over at Ikubus," he said, putting out his hand.

Ash reached out and shook Leo's hand. "And I'm Ash, I'm a trainer from Pallet Town." Pikachu hopped off of Ash's shoulder. "And this is my partner, Pikachu."

"Pikachu!" it introduced itself, and then hopped back on to Ash's shoulder.

"Well, you want to have a battle?" Leo seemed intrigued. He wanted to test this trainer's strength.

"You bet I do!" As she stood off to the side, Serena could sense the excitement in Ash's voice. She did her best not to get noticed, but to no avail.

"And who's this fine lady?" Leo said, looking over at Serena. He had caught her staring at the two trainers preparing to fight, and took that as a sign she was staring at him.

"That's my girlfriend, so watch it," Ash replied sternly. Leo's face turned bright red, and he immediately apologized.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" he insisted.

"It's fine, just don't do it again."

"Who was that?" Ash asked. It wasn't him, and it wasn't Serena or Leo, so who could it be? As he asked himself that question, a girl from the group of trainers stood next to Leo.

"S-sorry, Emily, I..!"

"I apologize for my boyfriend's behavior," Emily told the couple. "It's a habit of his. Doesn't this man know loyalty?" There was silence from Leo, who looked like he was having a breakdown of some sorts. He recovered himself quickly, and rejoined the conversation.

"Hey, I've got an idea. We'll do a couples battle – if you guys win, you'll each get a VirtuLens starter pack, which comes with a VirtuLens, _Sword Art Online: Reborn_ , and a coupon for a free accessory of your choosing. Sound good?"

"Yeah, sure," Serena said quietly. She knew Ash was a very capable battler, but she also knew she was better at Pokémon Performances than battles.

"Alright, sounds cool," Emily said, pulling a Poké Ball from her pocket.

"Sweet, let's go!" Ash exclaimed with excitement.

The four got in to their places, and they chose a member of the promotional board to be referee. Serena, Leo, and Emily got their Poké Balls ready, and Pikachu hopped off of Ash once again.

"This battle will be a 2-versus-2 battle! Only one Pokémon per trainer – the last team standing wins! Battle begin!"

"Let's go, Delphox!" Serena threw out her Poké Ball, and out came her Pokémon. Delphox was once a Fennekin, which she had received from Professor Sycamore's lab before starting her journey.

"Alright, Dragonite, come on out!" Leo threw a ball up in the air, and out came his Pokémon.

"Lapras, it's your turn." Emily calmly opened her Poké Ball, and a Lapras appeared on the battlefield.

"Let's do this, Pikachu!" Pikachu got in to battle stance, and the battle was underway.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt on Lapras!" Ash commanded. The little mouse shot a powerful wave of electricity towards Lapras, only to have its attack hit something else. Dragonite had blocked the move from hitting Lapras. But why?

Emily sent her first move. "Lapras, Ice Beam on Pikachu." The Pokémon started creating an icy-blue orb, and soon sent it out as a laser beam.

"Use Flamethrower on that Ice Beam, Delphox!" Serena ordered, as her Pokémon unleashed a stream of fire. Before the Ice Beam could hit Pikachu, Delphox's Flamethrower melted the attack, saving Pikachu from the damage.

"Heheh, clever move," chuckled Leo. "But cleverness won't get you anywhere. You're going to need power! Dragonite! Use Fly and take Pikachu up high!"

"Pika-pi! Pika pika!" Pikachu seemed to have an idea, and Ash knew exactly what it was.

"Ash, aren't you going to do anything?!" Serena whispered to him.

"Nope, trust me, you'll see!" he whispered back.

Dragonite approached, and aimed for Pikachu's tail. Ash appeared to be calculating when the big dragon would grab Pikachu, and at the right moment, he sent out an attack.

"Iron Tail!"

Pikachu's tail turned in to metal, and in seconds, Ash knew his plan worked. By the time Dragonite grabbed Pikachu, it hadn't noticed Pikachu's Iron Tail. Dragonite now had Pikachu, but the mouse was free to move and attack.

"Hey, Serena, have Delphox use Psychic to keep Dragonite where he is!" the boy whispered once again.

"Delphox, Psychic!" The fox Pokémon held Dragonite up in the air, stuck in its position.

"What are you…?!" All of the trainers could hear the stress in Leo's voice. Ash had him cornered!  
"Pikachu, Electro Ball!" With it's tail still stuck in Dragonite's claws, it generated an orb of electricity, and fired it straight at the Pokémon who had grabbed it. By the time Dragonite had processed it, it was too late.

"Delphox, Psybeam!" Serena had Delphox cancel it's Psychic attack with Psybeam, and it fired straight at the dragon.

"What?! No!" Leo was worried now. _How were they beating him?! He had the strongest Pokémon out of all of them!_

The Dragonite started falling out of the air, and Ash took the opportunity to finish it off.

"Serena! Go all-out on Lapras!"

"You've got it, Ash!"

"Pikachu, Iron Tail!" Pikachu's metal tail sent Dragonite slamming in to the ground. When Ash looked, his plan had worked – Dragonite was down.

"Dragonite has been knocked out!" The referee announced. "Leo has been eliminated!"

"But…how?! How did you that?!"

"Who was it that said cleverness won't get you anywhere?" Ash teased. "I thought I'd show you that you were wrong."

"But..how…ugh!" The friendly head of Ikubus's promotional board had become angry, knowing that he lost a battle. He stormed off to calm down.

"Sorry about that," Emily said. "He hasn't lost a battle at all yet, and he's ashamed and upset that you ruined his winning streak.

"Oh, it's fine. I'm sorry for ruining his winning streak, I guess," Ash replied. "Anyways, we've still got a battle to fight, so let's go!"

Serena had been observant during this entire exchange. In the corner of her eye, she caught Lapras charging an Ice Beam.

"Ash, watch out! Get Pikachu out of the way!"

"Okay...! Pikachu, you heard her!"

"Pika!" It moved over a little bit.

"Lapras, now!"

Emily's Pokémon fired its attack towards Pikachu, but Serena knew that was going to happen. She was about to do something that required a bit of guts.

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack!" she ordered. It wasn't her Pokémon, but she knew what she was doing.

"Pika!" It dashed towards Lapras, avoiding it's Ice Beam along the way. Pikachu hit Lapras, interrupting Ice Beam.

"Now, Delphox, use Psybeam!"

"Dellll-!" it cried, firing an attack with all its power.

"Pikachu, Thunderbolt!"

"Pikaaa…chuuuu!" Pikachu did the same.

The couple's Pokémon combined their attacks, and hit Emily's Pokémon hard. After a quite a bit of dust, Lapras had fallen as well.

"Lapras has been knocked out! Emily has been eliminated!" announced the referee. "Lapras and Dragonite are unable to battle! The winners are the challengers!"

Ash and Serena were met with loud cheering. They were unaware that during their battle, they had amassed a ton of spectators. There was a crowd of people all watching the battle!

"Congratulations, Ash and Serena!" Emily came over with a smile on her face, clapping her hands. "You guys did great. That was a fun battle!"

"You did great too!" Ash said.

"Yeah, it was fun," Serena added. "But how'd you get my name? I don't remember introducing myself."

"I heard your boyfriend call it out during the battle."

"O-oh, yeah…!" Ash sweat-dropped.

"Congrats, guys!" Leo had gathered himself once again. "That was an awesome battle!"

"Thanks for the battle!" Ash replied. "It was pretty awesome!"

"Here's your guys' prizes! You can redeem the coupon over there at that counter!"

"Thank you!" the boyfriend and girlfriend replied.

"Enjoy the game!" replied Emily.

"Hey, and before you go," Leo stopped the two. "Here's my username and Emily's. Once you log in, send us a friend request, 'kay?" He passed them a keycard. "Put this in to the VirtuLens's card slot, it'll automatically register us."

"Alright, will do!" Ash replied with a smile. "Talk to you guys later!"

"See you 'round, Ash!"

Everyone made way for the two as they walked to the counter with their VirtuLens packs. They pulled out their coupons, and they already knew what accessory they each wanted.

"I'll have one of the Poké Ball Scanners, please!" Ash told the guy behind the counter.

"Me too!" Serena chimed in.

They were given their Poké Ball Scanners, and they gave the man their coupons. With their VirtuLens stuff in tow, they headed back home.

 **~~Later…~~**

"Pika…" whined Pikachu.

"Pikachu, buddy, you've gotta get in your Poké Ball if you want to join the game with us."

"…pika-pi." And with the press of a button, Pikachu was back in its Poké Ball.

"Are you ready, Serena?" Ash asked. His girlfriend was doing the exact same thing he was – setting up the Poké Ball Scanner.

"Almost," she replied. "I kinda feel bad for doing this, don't you?"

Ash pondered his response a little bit before replying. "Yeah. Especially for poor Pikachu. I just hope they'll be alright, they guarantee that this device is safe, but I've got a few doubts."

"I have faith that everything will be alright. Clemont said he tested it, he assured us that it's safe. Don't you think his word is enough?"

"Yeah, I guess so. Anyways, I almost forgot; we've got one last thing to do." He pulled out the keycard that Leo gave him, and opened the card slot on his VirtuLens. He put the card in, and waited until the copy light turned green. He took it out, and repeated the process on Serena's.

"There, now we're ready."

Ash and Serena laid down next to each other, with their VirtuLens on. Ash put his hand around Serena's, and held it tight. Within seconds, their fingers were interlocked. In just two simple words, their lives were about to change forever.

 _"Link start!"_

 **~~End of Chapter 1~~**


	2. Link Start!

Ash stood in front of a floating keyboard, a few buttons, and a small text box. Surrounding him was a dimly-lit room, accented with bright orange lights.

 _Type your user name here._

He looked at the keyboard, and started typing. He and Serena had planned on using their real names for the game, and he started typing.

 _Is the user name "Ash Ketchum" okay? [YES | NO]_

He tapped the yes button, to be greeted by a few more options. He read the first option.

 _Do you have any nicknames?_ _[Type nickname here.]_

He typed in the nickname Ash, and went to the second option.

 _Use attached Pokémon Link data in the game? [YES | NO]_

He tapped the yes button once again. After all, what would have been the point of getting the Poké Ball Scanner if he didn't?

 _The VirtuLens has stored keycard data. Would you like to use it? [YES | NO]_

He tapped yes one last time, and a big, orange "LOG IN" button appeared. He tapped it, and the dark room faded in to solid white. Suddenly, the words "WELCOME TO SWORD ART ONLINE: REBORN!" zoomed in to view. The trainer braced himself, and in seconds he was teleported in to the virtual world.

"Wow…this is incredible!" Ash was amazed. The world was vast, colorful, and expansive. He couldn't wait to explore it all.

In the top-left of his view was a health bar. It showed him his level, his HP, and any status effects. Below it, he saw little Poké Ball icons with fully-green bars below them. He figured they must be his Pokémon and their status as well.

He remembered reading the how-to-start guide, and he attempted to open the menu. After multiple attempts of what looked like one simply flailing their arms around, he finally got the menu to open.

"Player, Pokémon, Items, Friends, Map, and Settings," he read aloud to himself. Those were all the options in the menu, and he had yet to explore them all. He had gone to close the menu, when he was interrupted by a noise.

 _Beep!_

The 'Friends' menu had started glowing orange, and a little orange badge appeared on the icon. He tapped it, and looked at the message on screen.

 _Player 'Serena' is now online!_

 _We must already be friends in our friends list. Wonder where she is,_ he thought to himself.

"Hey, Ash!"

 _Never mind._

"There you are!" she said while breathing heavily. "I've been looking for you all over!"

"Well, here I am. Here we are. This is the world of Aincrad everyone's been talking about."

"Yeah, it's amazing, isn't it?" Serena looked all around, in awe at the beautiful, detailed scenery.

"Anyways, we've got to start the game at some point, so let's explore a little bit!" Excitement filled the air, as Ash and Serena started their first steps in to _Sword Art Online: Reborn_.

"So, let's look at the menu," Ash said to Serena, as they both opened their menu. They tapped the 'Player' button. There were a few options, and they both tapped 'Equipment'. They looked through the items, and they found what they were looking for.

"«Starter Sword», here it is!" Ash pointed it out to Serena. "These are what we're supposed to use, until we can get something better."

"Alright, let's try it out!" The two equipped their weapons, and held them in their hands, taking a few swings at the air.

"I like it," Serena told Ash. "Wanna go find something to test 'em out on?"

"Alright, let's go!" Ash replied, sword in hand. They raced to the mob fields, and were greeted with…a field full of players.

"Aww, everyone's got all the mobs already!" Ash complained.

"I wanted some experience, too!" Serena added. "I don't want to be stuck as a level one!"

"Hey, who wants to have a Pokémon battle?!" someone in the fields called.

"Pokémon battle?!" Ash's interest was piqued.

"Nope," Serena pulled him away. "No battles right now."

"But I want to try a battle in this game!"

"Not now, young man."

"Hey, stop treating me like I'm five!"

Serena just giggled in response. She wasn't going to let a Pokémon battle detract from their first experiences in FullDive. This was her time with Ash. Not some other player's.

"Hey, Serena, I just remembered something," Ash said. He pulled up his menu and went to the friends list. At the bottom of the menu was a button with a flashing ! sign on it.

"Import friends from keycard data," Ash read. He tapped the button, and a window popped up.

 _Send friend request[s] to '[STAFF] Leo' and '[STAFF] Emily'? [YES | NO]_

"Oh, yeah, those two!" Serena remembered. "Wonder how they're doing." Ash tapped the yes button, and the friend requests sent.

"Hey Ash, over there!" Serena pointed to a horde of wild boars. "Let's try that out!" Serena pulled out her sword, and dashed towards the monsters. She activated her «Basic Sword Skill», and the boars vanished in to polygonal fragments.

"Alright, XP!" she celebrated.

"Congratulations, Serena!" Ash hugged her. "Now, it's my turn!" He looked for another boar horde. After locating one, he pulled out his own sword, and started rushing them.

"Hiiyaaahh!" he screamed, swinging the sword. Right before he could attack the boars, he felt time slow down. Soon, he had completely stopped. The clock in his HUD was frozen. Everyone around him, even Serena, just stood there, not moving an inch. Time had stopped completely.

 _What's this?!_ He thought to himself. _This…I'm stuck!_ He looked at his health bar – the Poké Ball icons were glowing. _Now, what was the gesture to send out a Pokémon again…?_ He stayed there, frozen in time, trying to remember… _I've got it!_

He put away his sword, put out three fingers, and made a motion like throwing a Poké Ball. Time unfroze, and Pikachu came out.

"Pika-pi!"It jumped in to its trainer's arms.

"There you are, Pikachu!" Ash hugged it, and it jumped back down, ready to fight. Ash checked his HP bar, and he saw something new – under his health bar was Pikachu's! It showed exact HP levels, experience, and even moves! Ash knew that the Poké Ball Scanner was essentially just a VirtuLens for Pokémon, so everything that happened here, Pikachu would remember. Pikachu's moveset was even transferred over from the real world.

"Alright Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"

"Piiikaaachuuu!" A huge blast of electricity shot towards the monsters, effectively defeating all of them.

"Alright, awesome!" Ash exclaimed.

"Wh…wh…what was that?!" Serena was shocked. A huge crowd had gathered around Ash. Everyone was shocked.

"What do you mean, what was that? Pikachu and I just defeated some monsters, what does it look like?!"

"No, I-I-I m-mean, you j-just had a sword, a-and then it disappeared and you sent o-out a P-Pokémon…" Serena was a stuttering mess. She was so confused. Everyone around him just looked at him like he was insane.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I went to go attack the things with my sword, but before it let me attack, time froze and it told me to switch to a Pokémon, so…"

"How did you do that?! And second of all, how did time bend like that?! This is all real-time, wouldn't we notice if time froze?!"

"Maybe, I don't know. I can't explain this!"

All of a sudden, Ash's menu opened itself. The friends list opened, and a notification was received: ' _[STAFF] Leo' and '[STAFF] Emily' accepted your friend request!_ Shortly after came a message from Leo.

 _Hey, Ash. I want you and Serena to meet us at the Town of Beginnings. We need to talk about something. Make sure you're prepared to fight some tough monsters along the way. –Leo_

"Serena, we've got to go. Do you think you're ready to take on some stronger things?"  
"N-no! And why do we have to go?!" Serena did not want to lose her precious time with Ash. After all, it would only be a matter of time before they were married…

"Leo needs us – it seems important." Ash looked concerned, and determined. He was worried about the meeting, but a friend needed him, and he didn't want to let anyone down.

"Well, alright. Let's go," she replied gloomily. She held on to her sword, and Pikachu hopped on Ash's shoulder.

The two headed down towards the Town of Beginnings – the 'starting hub' of _SAO:R_. It was much more peaceful than Leo had made it out to be; in fact, they were left completely alone on their way.

"Well, here it is," Ash told Serena, who had nearly fallen asleep. "Wake up, sleepyhead."

"Huh? O-oh, yeah, right, Town of Beginnings." She was still very drowsy, and it took her a little while to get her bearings. Eventually, they found Leo and Emily.

"There you are. You got here faster than I had anticipated, well done!" Leo looked fine enough, but something about Emily looked…off.

"What's up?"

"Well, Ash Ketchum, we had someone we wanted you to meet." Emily's voice seemed very stern, and unforgiving. She seemed cold – during the battle, she was really nice. What was going on here?

"Long time no see, Ash!" A player in a lab coat walked over towards the trainer, with something in his hands.

"Clemont! It has been a while!"

"It really has, hasn't it? I've talked to you over the phone, but not in person. Err...well, this isn't in person, but you know what I mean."

"Yeah. How have you been?"

"Well…" Clemont didn't seem to be too happy. A game he had dedicated hours, days, weeks, months of work in to had finally gone out to the public – he should be happy; instead, he was gloomy and seemed fearful.

"What is it?" Serena seemed worried. Was something bad going to happen?

"…Ash, I want you to open your menu," Leo said. He gave Ash a sort of an urgent look, and the trainer opened his menu.

"What about it?" he replied unsurely. "What's the problem?"

"I want you to go down the to the 'Options' menu, where the log out button should be," Leo told him.

The air in the mood, having three Ikubus employees in the area, and the words 'log out button' and 'menu' all raised red flags for Ash. He felt all of his energy rapidly disappear, turning in to fear and pain.

He slid down the menu, and opened the options. There, under the Option button, was a blank space – no icon, no text.

 _Right where the log out button was in the manual._

"…" No words were spoken. But words weren't necessary at this moment – Ash and Serena's tears said everything. Fear. Anger. Pain. Sorrow.

"How…! _How could you do this to us?!"_ Serena snapped at the three employees. " _Y-you could've…*sob*…warned us, god dammit!"_

"We didn't have anything to do with this, promise!" Clemont snapped back. "Even the higher-up programmers didn't know about this change until after they logged on!"

"I-it's true!" Emily added. "Someone secret changed the code before the release, a-and, a-a-and, no one knew about it! We developed the greatest MMO ever…just to end up releasing another death game!"

"Th-th-th-this…this c-c…c-can't b-b-b-b-e…!" Ash was still struggling to grasp the idea of not leaving _SAO:R_ , and with tears in his eyes, he held Pikachu as closely as he could.

"Pi...ka…!" Even his Pokémon felt it. They knew they were never leaving Aincrad until the game was cleared. After all, that's how it was in the original _SAO,_ right?

"Anyways, I have both good news and bad news," Clemont said with a shaky voice. "The good and bad news is is that if you die in the game you're _not_ dead IRL. So you can die, you'll be fine. But that also means that you can't suicide to escape."

"That's…actually…quite…relieving…" Serena responded, drying up her tears. Internally, the situation destroyed her in to pieces. But she had to stay strong, she wasn't going to make it through if she didn't.

"So, let me guess – we have to clear the game, just like the last _SAO_ incident?" Ash asked nervously.

"We don't know," Leo told him. "We only know about the log out removal because all three of us tried. We still have to wait for a system announcement for official details."

"Speak of the devil," Emily interrupted. A system teleport was being forced upon all players, back to the starting area. It was time for the announcement.

 **~~A few minutes later…~~**

The sound of players teleporting filled the air, as everyone was brought to the starting hub once again.

"This place seems a lot less cheerful after what we've learned recently," commented Ash.

"No kidding," Serena replied. The two held hands tightly, and kept each other close. Soon, a red panel reading "SYSTEM ANNOUCEMENT" appeared in the sky, and it multiplied in to many other panels, creating an invisible barrier surrounding the starting hub. They couldn't escape the area.

Suddenly, a voice came. There was no visible object it belonged to. Instead, it just echoed around everyone.

"Hello, everyone. Welcome to the grand launch of _Sword Art Online: Reborn_. I'm sure you are all aware of the lack of a log out button." The crowd started yelling, and getting angry.

"As you may guess, this was indeed intentional. The inability to log out was created on purpose. There is no way to log out of _Sword Art Online: Reborn_ – not even death."

The players got even angrier. Weapons and items were thrown at the barriers, people started slashing at the walls with their swords. It was complete chaos.

"This time, in order to complete the game, you must defeat all 200 floors. Yes, you heard that right – we've added fifty more floors to the game. In order to log out, you must defeat all 150 bosses on all 150 floors."

"Th-that's outrageous!" one player yelled.

"How the hell are we supposed to do that?!" yelled another.

"And to make the game more exciting, we've designed new bosses for each room – all of the bosses from the original _SAO_ have appeared as in-game mini-bosses."

"We have to defeat 150 bosses?!" Ash was angry, and worried, and scared. "We can't all do that…!"

"Now, you may be asking yourselves – why is this happening? We've decided that we will disclose this information once the game is over."

"You bastard!" cried one player.

"And with that, the tutorial for _SAO: Reborn_ is over. Enjoy your time here, players – and good luck." The barrier vanished.

Even with the crowd bursting in to madness, filled with chaotic riots, Ash overheard a few words from another player that intrigued him.

"God dammit!…here we go again!"

 **~~End of Chapter 2~~**


	3. The Meeting

Panic filled the air. No one could keep their composure, and everyone was going insane. It was arguable that I was the calmest person in this game. After all, this wasn't the first time I've been trapped inside a world like this. In fact, I was once trapped in a game nearly identical to this one – _Sword Art Online_.

The original VR-MMORPG death game. Yeah, I was one of the survivors. Hell, I was the one who cleared the final boss, Heathcliff, on the 74th floor of the original Aincrad.

The energy rush that I had experienced during the original opening of _SAO_ was absent from this one; this wasn't life or death. This was just being trapped until someone cleared the game.

That being said, I might as well take the initiative here – after all, we did want to get out, no?

"Kirito, are you planning on tackling this game too?" Asuna asked, her face filled with concern. "If you are, then I'm coming with you!"

"Well, why wouldn't I?" I replied. "I want to get out just as much as everyone else, don't you?"

"I-I mean, y-yeah, but as long as I'm stuck inside here with you, th-then it's okay…"

Not a comment I wouldn't expect from Asuna. But I have to clear this game. But…maybe I won't go solo this time. It'd be nice for a change, even though joining a guild would probably slow me down…

"Asuna, let's go." I grabbed her hand, and pulled her off.

"W-w-wait, Kirito, _h-hold it!_ " She stopped herself.

"What is it?"

"Would it make sense to try and catch these…'Pokémon' things?"

That question took me by surprise. I had forgotten about the Pokémon aspect of this game. I don't know what they are, I've never heard of them before. Then again, maybe they live in a certain part of the world that no one knows – it wouldn't surprise me.

"Well, maybe – but for now, Asuna, we should stick with our swords – we're familiar with those."

"Y-yeah, good point."

Asuna was one of the survivors from _SAO_ , just like I was. She was second-in-command of the biggest guild in Aincrad, the Knights of the Blood – she was also one of the strongest players. We fell in love with each other during our time trapped in there, and we've been talking and playing VR-MMORPGs with each other ever since.

You'd think our experiences in _Sword Art Online,_ we would have been so traumatized we'd never touch another FullDive device again. But, after certain circumstances required me to, I got readjusted with the system, and I got over it.

We headed off, towards a good first-floor grinding field. The layout was very similar to the one we had gotten used to in Aincrad, so it was a piece of cake finding it. We fought boars for hours on end, before finally ending up at level 7 by night-time.

"We need to stay somewhere," Asuna told me. "We've gotta get some sleep, I'm tired."

"Yeah, that's true." I was pretty exhausted. After hours of endless training and fighting, I needed a break.

"Hey, how about that hotel in the Town of Beginnings?"

"That works for me," I replied. The Town of Beginnings had a place where for a small fee, you could stay overnight, and it was a safe zone as well, allowing people to sleep peacefully.

We arrived at the hotel, only to be greeted by a crowd of people. I made my way through to see what they were all watching…

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack!" cried a boy. A yellow mouse thing dashed incredibly quickly, and tackled a blue turtle. Are these the Pokémon things?

And then, all of a sudden, there was cheering. Over the heads of the player and his Pokémon were one of those things you see after a duel.

 _WINNER: Ash Ketchum_

"Squirtle is unable to battle!" called someone, who must have been acting as referee for this odd fight. "This means Ash is the winner!"

The boy had some fighting spirit, I'll give him that. He seemed to be getting in to it, and you could tell he had zoned in on what was in front of him. He looked strong.

I had half of the mind to challenge him to a duel. However, I wasn't quite sure about his skill with a sword. I had no doubt he could use one, but still…he seemed much more skilled with a Pokémon.

I decided to wait until the morning to take any action. I wanted to think about it some more. If he could do okay with a sword, I'd challenge him. Now, on the other hand…I felt a shiver of fear.

"What if…those Pokémon…can attack players?" I thought out loud. If they could…this player could easily defeat me in a fight. After all, the only thing I really know how to use is a sword, and even then I don't have my «Dual-Wield» skill from the original _SAO_ , so my power would effectively be halved.

"Anyways, we really need to get some sleep," Asuna tugged at my arm. "I'm getting more tired by the minute."

"Yeah, me too. Don't you think we should get some food first?" I wasn't hungry, but I still wanted food. The FullDive environment had evolved to better simulate things like eating, drinking, and smell. And I'm not going to lie, I was kinda excited to try out these new things – I wasn't really hungry.

"Good idea. How about that restaurant across the street?" She pointed to a big building, bustling with people.

"Alright, works for me."

We walked through the crowd, on our way over to the restaurant. The crowds swallowed us, and we had almost gotten lost. The amount of players who had logged on the opening day was astounding, and now all of those people were collecting in the towns.

"I heard over thirty raid parties have tried to take down the boss already," Asuna said, trying to break the silence. "Apparently, they all died trying to find their way."

"That's kinda funny," I replied. "We're not even a week in to the game, and they're already looking for a fight. It took us six months just to defeat the first-floor boss in _SAO_ , and they're trying to do it in less than 24 hours."

"No kidding! I'd be surprised if they even made it through a single dungeon!"

We continued talking about the events of the past day on our way to dinner. From the failed boss raids, to the most intense duels of the day. Unsurprisingly, the boy from earlier entered our conversation.

"…and that guy who was fighting with those Pokémon things, that was incredible. I've never seen anything quite like it."

"Y-yeah, I guess. I've been busy wondering what his sword skills are like. If he can battle Pokémon like that, then he must be experienced with a sword, don't you think?"

"Well, now's your chance to find out."

We had almost reached the door to the place, when someone's voice called out.

"Looking for a battle!" he cried.

This was it. My chance to find out his true power.

"I'll take you on," I told him. I walked over to him, with my hand on my sword's sheath. His hand reached towards his pocket.

"Alright! Got any special requests for rules?"

The boy seemed arrogant and cocky. It was going to be even more fun taking him down.

"Well, there is one. I want this to be a duel, not some monster vs. monster battle like I just saw a little while ago."

"Oh," he replied. "Works for me. Oh, and hey – my name's Ash, nice to meet you."

"I'm Kirito."

"Before we start, here's this," Ash held out his hand. In it was a crystal.

"This is a «Revival Crystal». Use it when you respawn, and it will teleport you back to your death point. The name's a bit misleading, but it does the trick!"

"Thanks." I accepted the item and put it in my inventory.

"Well, now that that's out of the way…let's do this!"

"Alright, you're on!"

 **~~End of Chapter 3~~**


	4. Crossing Swords

The battle was on. I raised my sword, ready to fight, but this Ash kid still hadn't pulled out a weapon.

"How are you gonna fight?" I asked him. "Don't you need a sword to fight?"

The boy gave a response, but not one I was expecting. It wasn't a "hold on" response, it wasn't a "just you wait and see" response, but…

"Alright, Pikachu! Let's go!" He threw a ball, and out came the little mouse creature from earlier.

"Pika pika!" it cried. Sparks flew from its cheeks.

In Ash's hand, a sword materialized. It wasn't anything special, but from what I could see, it had some strange attributes. For one, it had a yellow-tinted glow to it. Second, it emitted a strange heat. It was a very intriguing weapon.

I charged at him, sword in hand. I got prepared to swing, but…

"Pikachu, Iron Tail!" commanded the opposing player. The Pokémon turned its tail in to solid metal, and it swung. Not at me, but my sword.

"What the-?!" My attack was cancelled. This Pikachu's tail had completely stopped my blade. In fact, it was pushing its tail against my sword, preventing me from moving forward!

"Hiyaaah!" A loud cry came from Ash. By the time I had noticed, it was too late, but he had come to rush me – and I couldn't stop it. As he attacked, the heat from his sword grew even hotter, and sparks began to fly. He swung.

My HP bar started to drain. I felt the tingles of electricity running through my body, and soon, I became paralyzed.

 _How did he do that?!_ I thought to myself. _His sword…his sword paralyzed me!_

"Pikachu, hit him with a Quick Attack!"

"Pi-ka, pi-ka, pika, pika, pikapikapika!"

The Pokémon's speed rapidly increased, as it came darting towards me. As I sat there, frozen, I felt a powerful tackle.

My health bar drained even more – over a third of my health was gone already! This Ash guy had some serious power.

Ash had started to charge me again, with his electric sword in hand. I waited for the opportune moment to strike. My paralysis was going away, and while I acted I was stuck on the ground, I was actually ready to attack.

He was just a foot in front of me, about to swing, when I leaped up with my sword, and attacked him. His health dropped down to almost half, but I knew that hitting him wouldn't be an easy task. If his Pikachu could completely halt my attack, and he could paralyze me, then he could totally destroy me!

"Pikachu, Electro Ball, followed by an Iron Tail!" Ash called. The mouse started charging a ball of electric power. As it did so, its tail solidified once again, and hit the orb hard. It came hurling towards me. In this moment, I had a quick idea.

I raised my sword towards the ball. I was thinking that maybe my metal sword could conduct the electricity this thing fired, but my assumption couldn't have been more wrong.

The ball smashed through my sword. It flew out of my hands, and created a big crack in the blade. It wasn't completely smashed – I could repair it – but the costs to do so would be way too expensive. Since it was broken, it's power was significantly reduced.

I was hit, and my health dipped down to just a bit over half. It didn't do as much as I had anticipated, and I was back on my feet within seconds, but that didn't help me any. I went to ambush Ash once again.

With my sword ready to attack, I took the chance. I swung, but he blocked with his own weapon. The electricity and heat flowed from his blade on to mine, as the handle started to shock me a little bit. We held this position of blocking each other for a few moments. As we did, my hands started to get warmer and warmer, until they eventually felt like they were burning. I had focused on holding my blade against his, and paid no mind to my health bar. I should have known, but the power radiating from his sword, and the pain I felt while all of that power rushed from my blade in to my hands and body, had caused me to lose almost 15% health.

I dropped my blade. My hands couldn't take it anymore. They felt like they were on fire, and the pain was overwhelming. And this would be the death of me.

"Alright Pikachu! Let's finish this off with a Thunderbolt!"

"Piiikaaachuuu!" it cried, as it fired a huge attack towards me. Ash had pointed his sword at me, and it charged up what looked like a magic attack. In seconds, the blade had fired the same "Thunderbolt" attack this Pikachu did.

The bolts hit me. I could feel my energy slowly fading. Sure enough, my HP was falling faster and faster. From yellow. To red. To gone.

I lost.

 *****LATER*****

I opened my eyes. I was back at the starting point of the game, the main lobby. It was deserted, as everyone had gone to either sleep or hunt during the night. I pulled out the «Revival Crystal» Ash gave me, and warped back.

When I had finally settled, I saw Ash, Asuna, and some girl with short, blonde hair waiting for me. I looked around, and a huge crowd was cheering. Apparently, we had amassed a decent amount of onlookers. I hadn't noticed.

"Nice fight," Ash said, his hand out. "You did pretty great out there. You're definitely the strongest player I've fought so far!"

I shook his hand. "Thank you. And that was pretty interesting, seeing what you did out there. You're pretty strong, and with those Pokémon skills, you're probably the strongest player in the game at the moment. Congratulations on your win."

"Thanks. Don't give me all the credit, though – Pikachu did a lot of it!" The little yellow creature had hopped on to its master's shoulder.

"Pika-pi!" it cried.

"Nice job out there, Kirito!" Asuna nearly hugged me to the ground. "You did awesome out there!"

"Thanks, Asuna."

After a moment, I had realized that I didn't have my sword in my inventory anymore. I looked around, where I remembered it being knocked down to, and where I had expected to find my sword, was a pile of melted metal.

The heat from our blocking battle must have melted it. Combine it with the damage it had already suffered, and the sword was toast.

"I'm sorry about that," Ash told me. "I can buy you a new one if you want…"

"Nah, it's cool. In fact, keep it. It'll be a token of our battle." I went over and tapped what was once my sword. A menu popped up with two options.

 _This item has been damaged severely and is unrepairable. What do you want to do with it? [ Keep the item ] or [ Delete the item ]?_

I tapped the "Keep the item" button, and it re-appeared in my inventory. I selected "Remove from inventory", and the molten pile materialized right in front of me, the shape of a sword still there, but only barely. I picked it up. It was cool, and had hardened. I gave it to Ash. He tapped it, and selected "Pick up". The weapon then made its home in Ash's inventory.

"Oh, hey," Ash said. "Kirito, this is my girlfriend, Serena."

"Hi!" The blonde-haired girl cheerfully greeted me. "Nice to meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too," I replied. "And, while we're at it, this is my girlfriend, Asuna."

"Hey," she greeted the two.

"Hey, how about we all go get something to eat?" Serena asked.

"Sounds good to me!" replied Ash, cheerfully.

"Sure!" Asuna responded. "Our original plan was to come here and eat, actually…"

"S-sorry for holding you guys up!" Ash told her apologetically.

"It's nothing, really. I enjoyed watching, and I'm sure Kirito enjoyed participating!"

"Yeah, I did." I added.

"What are we waiting for, guys? This is no time to sit here and chat, let's eat!" Ash interrupted. Man, was he impatient.


	5. Ready To Fight

The restaurant was just about dead now. My battle with Kirito had taken a lot longer than expected, so it was pretty late.

"Hey, Kirito."

"What's up?"

I had a question I wanted to ask him. Something during the battle seemed off. He seemed too skilled to be a day-one player. Even if he was really good at VR-MMOs, he shouldn't be so skilled. I mean, he knew exactly when to strike and everything!

"Kirito, how did you pull that off?"

"Pull what off?"

"You put up a really good fight. But you seem way too good to be a day-one, and I don't think it's experience in other VR-MMORPGs that translated to your skills here."

I think I caught Kirito by surprise, because he nearly choked on his food after I asked.

"H-hey, you were too good with that Pokémon to be a day-one player!"

"I've had real-world experience battling with Pikachu. Do you have IRL experience with sword-fighting or something?"

"W-w-well…"

Asuna was the first person to answer anything remotely related to my original question.

"Give us a minute, please."

She pulled Kirito outside. We had no idea what was going on.

"Ash!?" Serena seemed upset. "Why'd you say that?!"

"I-I didn't mean to upset him!"

She sighed. "I guess you're right. I know you didn't mean anything by it."

Kirito and Asuna walked back in.

"We have something to tell you," Kirito told us.

"Kirito and I…"

"...are _SAO_ survivors."

The words rattled inside my head. _These people survived_ Sword Art Online.

"Th-that's…that's…" Serena was struggling to find the right words. "Th-that's incredible! How did-!"

I stopped her. "Let's leave it at that," I told her quietly. "Let's not talk about it more than we have to, they seem uncomfortable."

"Okay…" she replied. She looked like she had so many questions with no answers.

We finished our food, and said our goodbyes.

"Well, we're off to bed. Good night guys," said Asuna, walking away.

"Wait, before we go," Kirito came over to me. "Ash, please accept this." He opened the menu, went to his friend menu, and sent a request. In just a few seconds, I heard a sound. Opening my own menu, I saw a little notification bubble near my friends list icon. I tapped it, and there I saw a bubble.

 _Incoming friend request from 'Kirito' - [ ACCEPT | DECLINE ]_

I tapped the "accept" button, and Kirito appeared in my list.

"See ya round," he said, waving. He walked away with Asuna.

"Well, we ought to get to bed too." Serena poked me. "We've got a hell of a long time to train and grind until we get out of here."

"Yeah…we do."

 *****The next morning…*****

"Good morning, Ash."

I yawned, and opened my eyes. Serena had already gotten ready for the day. Her face was just the same as it was in the real world, but her normal clothing style was instead replaced with a plain t-shirt and some basic armor.

"Good morning," I replied, still waking up. "How'd you sleep?"

"Barely at all," she said, tiredness lingering in her voice. "I still can't quite fully grasp the concept of not being able to escape this world. We'll have to get used to living in these kinds of places until we can afford a house."

"Yeah, I guess you're right." What she said was true – we're stuck living in hotels and the like until we can afford a house; and houses are expensive. There were cheaper ones, but those were designed for one person. And besides, there were barely any housing spaces on the first floor, and no one knows the progress made on the first floor so far. If there was any.

"Anyways, we should get to grinding – we've got some leveling to do."

I got ready, and headed out. We checked out of where we were staying, and headed out to the open world.

We were greeted by a clear blue sky and a calming light breeze. It was a nice day.

"Ahh~! If every day were like this…I'd be okay with that," Serena commented.

"So would I. Nice weather aside, where do you want to go today?"

"Well, we've got pretty much forever to explore, so let's just go get some XP." She ran off in the direction of the grinding field. She summoned her sword, and kept a tight grip on it. Soon, I couldn't see her anymore.

"W-wait! Hold it! Slow down, Serena!" I chased after her, trying to catch up. I summoned my own sword – the electric sword I had used to defeat Kirito – and opened my skill menu. I looked through it, and saw the skill I was looking for:

 _«Quick Attack» [POKÉ-LINK]_

The skill-link tag indicated that it was linked to a skill of something else – my Pikachu. Some swords have special indicators, like "Poké-Link Compatible" and "Electric-Type". This means that it will Poké-Link with Pokémon of the Electric-type. Poké-Link enables me to use my Pokémon's moves as Sword Skills – like the Thunderbolt I used in the battle yesterday.

I activated the skill, and dashed off in Serena's direction. I could feel my speed increasing, but after ten seconds, it wore off. Luckily, I had dashed just far enough to catch up with Serena.

"Hey Serena!" I called out. She jumped a little bit, like I had caught her by surprise.

"How did you catch up so quickly?!" She was shocked. "Th-that was incredibly fast!"

"Yep! And I'll bet I can beat you to the field!"

"I doubt it – but prove me wrong!"

I continued to run as fast as I could, waiting for the cooldown on my skill to go away. I then proceeded to use it again, bolting far past her.

"See ya!" I teased.

"What…?!" Her competitive side started to show. "Ohh...I'm going to beat you!"

"Not if I can help it!"

We kept teasing each other back and forth, until we eventually arrived.

"Beat you!" I bragged.

"Ohh…! How'd you do that?! You were like way behind and then you just zoomed ahead!"

"Just a skill I picked up," I replied nonchalantly.

"What's the skill called?!" I knew hiding Poké-Link from Serena wouldn't work forever, so I told her outright.

"It's actually one of Pikachu's moves, «Quick Attack». I used a Poké-Link weapon, hence the electricity in my battle with Kirito."

"Oh, that's interesting…"

"And that's also one of the reasons he didn't know what he was up against – this weapon type didn't exist in the original _SAO_ – it's a brand-new one."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?!"

"Because I haven't quite mastered it myself yet, and I wanted to test the waters first!"

"It's because you didn't want me to get better at it than you, isn't it?"

"…"

"Just kidding! I know you wouldn't do that, right?" She giggled a bit, then winked at me.

"Why would I?"

"Well, we're here – the fields we'll be working in for quite some time."

"You make it sound like we're slaves on a cotton farm or something."

"Well, I-I mean…"

"Oh, never mind. These monsters aren't going to kill themselves!"

"You make it sound like we're encouraging suicide."

"…I guess we're even?"

"How are suicide and slavery even?"

"…they seem pretty even to me."

"You know, this conversation isn't going to end anywhere."

"That's probably accurate."

"Now before we get side-tracked again, let's get to leveling!"

We spent a few hours farming experience, waiting for mob hordes to spawn and re-spawn, and using the same sword skills all over again. We went up to level 10, up two levels from yesterday. I don't know what level Kirito was, but I'd assumed he was higher up than me – probably level 12 or something.

Randomly, my menu opened. A message from Emily.

 _You, Serena. Town of Beginnings. Prepare to fight. –Emily_

"Well…this seems...strange." It was certainly strange – it was so straight-to-the-point, it almost seemed like a threat. " _Prepare to fight"?_ Did Emily want to battle us? Were we going to have to fight for our lives or something?!

"What seems strange?" asked Serena, looking over at me. "What's that message say?"

I read it out loud to her. She told us we should go, but told me to send Leo a message asking about it first.

I opened my message composer, and set the recipient to '[STAFF] Leo'. He started typing away on a holographic keyboard.

 _Hey Leo. Emily just sent us a very strange message._ I copied her message in to mine. _Do you know anything about this? It sounds a bit sketchy, is all. We're on our way to meet her for now. Talk to you soon. –Ash_

We made the trek from our grinding field to the Town of Beginnings. It was a long road, and Serena and I discussed investing in teleport crystals, but we still had to walk on foot for the time being.

 **Beep!**

My menu opened once again. Leo had sent a reply:

 _Hey Ash. I don't know anything about this. I haven't seen Emily in a while, actually. I don't know what she's up to, so I trust her, but be cautious – she can be unpredictable at times! That's all I've got to say. I don't know what she's up to now, but good luck! –Leo_

"Well, that's reassuring," Serena commented sarcastically.

"It's all we've got to work with, so I mean, it's better than nothing."

After a short while more of walking, we finally arrived.

"Aaaand we're back," I sighed. "I feel like I've seen this place too many times already..."

"Seriously," Serena added. "In a week, this will feel like home."

 _Home._

I had started to forget that this _wasn't_ home. I had already grown used to the _SAO:R_ system. The game felt like home…it felt like I had lived here my whole life. Images of my own personal life, outside of the virtual world, started to blur. This was my life – the real me, in the real, physical world – was temporarily non-existent. Ash Ketchum lived in Aincrad. But, even though I now lived in here, I needed to hold on to my memories of the real world more than ever. If I let go of all of that…Ash Ketchum would cease to exist.

Those memories are what kept me fighting to escape in the first place. If I forgot them, would I have the will to fight anymore? Or would I be content with living in Aincrad forever?

No. The Ash Ketchum in the real world _isn't_ gone – he's right here. I'm no different than him. I _am_ him.

"Ash? Hello?" Serena's face was right in front of mine. "Are you there?"

"O-oh, yeah, s-sorry about that." I must have zoned out pretty hard.

"There's Emily." Serena pointed in the direction of a sketchy-looking house.

"A-are you sure? That looks…very suspicious."

"Well, that's her, isn't it?" She was right about that. The dark skin, the brown hair – that was surely her.

"Took you long enough," she mumbled, as we approached her.

"Hey, Emily!" I called out, trying to be as friendly as possible.

"...cut the friendliness," she said harshly. What was going on?

"What's going on?" asked Serena, who seemed confused. _Can she read my mind?!_

"Are you prepared to fight?" The words fell blandly from her mouth.

"Yeah, always!"

"Good. Now hold on just one moment." She walked inside the house.

"Ash, tell Leo to get over here ASAP!" The urgency in Serena's voice was alarming.

"Alright."

I started typing away.

 _Leo, meet us at the Town of Beginnings, as quick as possible. We're at a shady looking place. Emily is here too. Please, hurry – something sketchy is up! –Ash_

I sent it hastily, hoping Emily wouldn't notice. If she did, I wonder what would happen?

She walked out of the building, with something in her hand. A small sword.

"What's that?' I asked. There was a strange glow coming from it.

"A _very_ rare item," she replied, holding it out in front of our faces. _A Key Stone._ "Do you still plan to fight?"

"As if I would give up!"

"Then, let us battle."

I summoned a Poké Ball. Not for Pikachu, but for a different Pokémon – Greninja.

"Alright, Mewtwo, let's go." She threw out her Poké Ball. _A freaking Mewtwo?!_

"Come on out, Greninja!"

"Now, to prevent any damage…" she pulled out an item, and tapped it. A protective barrier appeared around us. "This will be our battlefield."

"That's fine with me! Bring it on!"

"Heh." She put her hand on her Key Stone. "Beyond evolution…Mega Evolve!"

A bright burst of light appeared, surrounding Mewtwo. In just moments, it became slimmer and sleeker. _Mega Mewtwo Y._

"We got this, Greninja!"

"Are you sure, Ash?" Serena called from the sidelines. "This...doesn't seem safe...!

"With so much at stake, I can't lose!" I replied back.

"Oh...don't do anything to reckless!"

"I can't promise that!" I smirked. _This was no time to back down! I've gotten myself into this. I'll pull myself out!_

"So the battle is on, then."

"Yes it is! Get ready, Greninja!"


End file.
